Faith - Lesley Pearse [81]
‘I am at a distinct disadvantage,’ Stuart explained. ‘You see, it was only very recently that Laura admitted to me the truth about her childhood. Up till then I knew nothing of you, Ivy and Freddy. I realize now what a wrench it was for her to leave you, and why she felt it necessary to keep up the fiction she’d created for herself, but there are still things I don’t quite understand.’
‘So you believed her “fiction”?’
Stuart nodded.
Meggie chuckled. ‘She managed it then. I used to tease her by saying she’d slip up one day.’
‘You knew about it?’ Stuart exclaimed.
‘Of course I did. I didn’t like it at first, it felt like she was ashamed of me too. But eventually I saw advantages for myself – we’re all pretty self-centred when we’re young, aren’t we?’
Stuart was confused. ‘Are you saying that you were in touch with Laura all along?’
‘If by all along you mean right up till she was arrested for the murder, yes. But not the first few years after she left the house at Barnes. I was just a kid then, she disappeared and Mum didn’t have a clue where she was. She came back not long after Vincent died. Do you know about him?’
‘I know what he did to her, she wrote the whole thing down for me to read,’ Stuart said. ‘But I didn’t know she’d had any further contact with any of you after she left the house in Barnes. I hope that on my next visit she’ll tell me about the period between then and when I met her in ’72. You see, Meggie, that period of Laura’s life is just a blank to me. Okay, I got tiny glimpses of it through Jackie once I was working for her, like them working at the holiday camp and doing promotions together. But it was only a couple of days ago that I discovered Greg Brannigan put her through hell. Laura only ever told me that she left him because he had another woman.’
Meggie put a mug of coffee down in front of him and sat down opposite him at the table. ‘She didn’t tell you he tried to poison her?’
Stuart’s eyes widened. ‘No!’
‘Oh dear,’ Meggie sighed. ‘There is just so much you should know to understand her. I hardly know where to start!’
‘The beginning is always a good place,’ Stuart said with a grin.
Meggie half smiled. ‘Easily said, but you see, I’m just as guilty as Laura of hiding unpalatable parts of my past, and much as I’d like to help her, I guess I’m afraid of opening my own can of worms.’
7
Stuart waited as Meggie appeared to be gathering herself to tell him something. Her brow was furrowed with frown lines, and it was clear to him that she wasn’t in the habit of confiding in people.
‘I really thought Laura could do anything, be anyone she wanted to be,’ she blurted out, breaking the silence. ‘Ivy and I relied on her for everything when we were little. She was far more of a mother to us than June was. But you already know how it was before June married Vince, and what he did to Laura, so I think I’d better pick up from after he died.’
‘You are very like Laura,’ Stuart said thoughtfully. ‘Not just your looks either – you have the same intriguing quality.’
Meggie smiled. ‘She was a very good teacher. But for now you’ve got to imagine me at fifteen – fat, slovenly, spotty and sulky.’
‘That’s beyond my imagination,’ Stuart said gallantly.
‘Bless you.’ Meggie laughed lightly, showing white, very good teeth. ‘Now, don’t sidetrack me with any more compliments or I’ll never get to tell you what happened.’
‘Okay, my lips are sealed,’ Stuart made a zipping gesture across his mouth.
‘I was a bitch when Laura turned up that day in Barnes. I think it was because she looked everything I felt I never could be. A grown-up, gorgeous, elegant woman. Half of me wanted to hug her and tell her how much I’d missed her, but the other half was full of resentment